Healthy Habits: Eat Chocolate for Dessert

Posted by Cara - March 11th 2014

I’m so excited to be working with Skinnygirl Daily this month, to tell you about–and participate in–the Skinnygirl Healthy Habits Challenge (which you can enter here!). The challenge is about making better decisions for the mind, body, or soul, and you can chime in or follow along using the hashtag #SkinnygirlHH.

Anyway, though we don’t talk a ton about health here (I think it’s implied when you discuss home cooking), as winter winds down, and we finally approach spring, I bet I’m not the only one who feels a little, well, soft. I can’t wait to get back on my bike, to run around in the park, and to eat summer vegetables adorned with nothing but grill marks.

But one step at a time. While we wait for the days to turn warm and long, I wanted to tell you about a healthy habit I’ve adopted for the challenge that you could pick up right this second. Here it is: eat chocolate for dessert.

I’ve always loved sugar. I’ve loved it since I led my sister and neighbor on campaigns to steal marshmallows when our parents weren’t looking. But here’s the thing about sugar: it is often delivered with a lot of other food, enough sustenance to count as lunch–except that slice of cake never feels like lunch. When the fact sank in that sweets really were a treat, I delighted in applying the stomach space saved on sweets to foods that nourished me better.

That said, what’s a girl to eat for dessert? Here’s my answer: dark chocolate. It’s delicious, it’s easy, and it’s gloriously itself, meaning you don’t need tons of carbs or copious amounts of butter to make it delicious. I opt to keep an open bag of chocolate chips in the fridge, but you could indulge in a fancy chocolate bar, if that’s more your style.

What are your healthy habits? If you don’t have any, you’ll find great ones in the daily Healthy Habits Challenge emails – join here!

This post was sponsored by Skinnygirl. You can join the Healthy Habits Challenge (and enter to win a trip to NYC) here, and you should also check out Skinnygirl’s Tasty Nutrition Bar (pictured above)–they’re tasty yet healthy and include my dessert favorite, dark chocolate. They’re less than 170 calories and come in Chocolate Pretzel, Banana Oatmeal and Peanut Butter with Sea Salt flavors. Thanks for supporting the sponsors that keep Big Girls, Small Kitchen delicious!